How Stress Can Make You Fat, Bald and Ugly

We are all familiar with stress. It’s an unwanted guest that pops up time to time, and sometimes annoyingly, will overstay its welcome. In short doses, it isn’t very harmful, and hey, life isn’t always doughnuts and chirping birds.

However, when it hangs around for awhile, it becomes a real problem. I don’t mean the discomfort that it causes, but rather the havoc that it wreaks on your body and mind.

Stress can make you fat, bald, and ugly. (By ugly, I don’t mean mustard yellow shag rug ugly, I mean irritable, unkind, and possibly even downright mean.) Discover how, plus learn 5 daily habits to decrease stress that you can start today.

Here’s the basic physiology behind stress:

When your boss tells you last minute that he needs you to complete a massive project by next Tuesday, your brain will form a thought. That thought will then lead to a feeling. This feeling for most people, will probably be something like stress, overwhelm, irritation, anger, and anxiety.

Two parts of your brain, the hypothalamus and the pituitary gland, will then send signals to your adrenal gland to produce more cortisol. Cortisol is the hormone that is meant to help with the “fight or flight” response when in danger.

This was super helpful back in the days of wild animals wanting to eat our ancestors for dinner, but now not quite as useful.

Normally, these levels will settle back down to baseline. However, when we have many negative thoughts leading to negative feelings of stress, overwhelm, etc., the cortisol ends up being elevated more frequently and for longer periods of time. Ultimately, this leads to the following negative effects on our bodies.

Weight gain is a negative effect of stress:

Elevated cortisol was found to be associated with an increase in appetite, potentially promoting weight gain.

Another study found a correlation between elevated cortisol levels and belly fat, suggesting also that elevated cortisol can lead to overeating.

Besides the elevated cortisol, you also have the emotional eating associated with stress. When we are stressed, our brains automatically seek out something pleasurable to counteract the stress.

Pleasurable things may include eating a slice of cheese or a cookie, drinking a glass of wine, listening to our favorite song, etc. We then get what’s called a “dopamine hit”.  

Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that plays a part in pleasure. This increase in dopamine leads to us trying to seek more pleasure. Hence, the possibility of weight gain over time.

• Read this too: 5 Brain Hacks to End Overeating

Hair loss is a negative side effect of stress:

There are three main types of hair loss that can be caused by high amounts of stress. These are Telogen effluvium, alopecia areata, and trichotillomania.

Telogen Effluvium

Normally, your hair follicles take turns going into the resting phase, and this makes it so that you don’t lose a whole bunch of hair at once.  Telogen Effluvium is when large numbers of hair follicles are forced into their resting phase all at once, leading to a lot of fallout in the next few months.

Alopecia Areata

This one is a little bit tricky. This is when your body’s immune system attacks your hair follicles, leading to hair loss. It is thought that high levels of stress can cause this, however the research isn’t quite solid yet.

Trichotillomania

This is when you pull out your own hair due to negative emotions, including stress, anxiety, tension, etc. It’s more of a behavioral cause of hair loss due to stress.

Ugly emotions are a side effect of stress:

We’ve all been there. Irritability, impatience, anger, pessimism, negative self-talk, sarcasm, unfair judgement, etc. It doesn’t feel good while it’s happening, nor does it feel good afterward. We can end up saying things we didn’t really want to say to others (and ourselves). We end up ultimately compounding the stress because of the negative feelings we end up creating on top of the initial stress.

So how can you help decrease stress?

Here are some things you can practice every day that only take a few minutes. If you turn these into daily habits, then you will start to see a decrease in overall stress levels. I can speak from personal experience and also from studies I have read throughout the years that support these activities.

• Read this too: How to Conquer Your Eating and Drinking Urges

5 Daily Habits To Decrease Stress

Daily Habit of Positivity:

Start every day by saying out loud (or quietly to yourself if you prefer), “it’s going to be an amazing day.” If you can’t quite make that stretch, then maybe try something like, “it might be a tough day, but I can do tough.”

Daily Habit of Silence/Meditation:

Sit in silence with your eyes closed for 2 minutes. Just start small with 2 minutes. Try to pay attention to one thing during this time, your breath. If you do this, it gives your mind a chance to rest and for you to just be at peace for a bit.

Daily Habit of Gratefulness

Write down 3 things every day that you are grateful for. There are so many studies done on the benefits of gratitude, so I started it myself. I’ve been a happier person because of it.

What I recommend is to first try to think of things about another person, yourself, or circumstances in your life that you are grateful for.

Now certainly, if you are struggling with some ideas, then go ahead and put any objects you are grateful for, such as that delicious mug of hot coffee, your comfy bed, or your new running sneakers.

Daily Habit of Deep Breathing

At every red light you sit at, take slow, deep breaths until the light turns green. This helps in two ways. The first is by tricking your body into thinking you are very relaxed. It kicks up the parasympathetic nervous system.

The second way is that it helps pass the time that we normally may get irritated and impatient, sitting at a red light. Try it!

Daily Habit of Winding Down

Take the last 15-30 minutes before bedtime to do something relaxing that doesn’t involve a screen. This can be reading, snuggling with your pet or partner, listening to a meditation or relaxing music, or writing in a journal about your day, future goals, etc.

During the past month, I have been doing these daily habits and have found a significant benefit. I am sleeping better, have overall less anxiety, and feel like I enjoy every day a bit more. I hope you see these benefits as well!